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I‘ve been thinking about this. Let‘s say the British manage to put down the rebellion, and many rebel leaders like Jefferson, Adams etc. flee to France.

The French revolution probably still happens, but what if it turns out similar to OTL? Meaning it devolves into a dictatorship and the reign of terror, witnessed first hand by the former rebels, followed by some kind of restoration afterward.

The concept would certainly be discredited for a while, wouldn‘t it? Some might even believe it was a good thing that the American revolution failed, otherwise that would have devolved into some kind of reign of terror as well.

Yet i don‘t think that means that absolute monarchy would last forever. How would people like Jefferson, or other liberal thinkers of that age, react to all of this? Would they just give up, or would they look at other models to organize society? Demarchy perhaps, where positions are determined by lot?

I guess there is still Britain as a model, but Britain might develop differently as well in the absence of the US. And it wasn‘t even a democracy at the time anyway.
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